“After a long period of deliberation and many conversations with Dr. Mansour Abbas, I decided that the right thing to do is to take action — to join Ra’am’s list. In particular at this time, amid the social polarization between Jews and Arabs. Ra’am wants to be part of taking action.

I am Jewish, a Zionist, secular, an officer in the IDF and a commissioner in the Israel Police. Mansour is Arab, a religious Muslim and a conservative. What connects the two of us is that we are all Israelis, and that is our shared identity.

The Arab population in Israel makes up 21 percent [of the population] — active and productive, in industry, the economy, culture, education and medicine. It is an engine of economic and social growth.

Yes, there are differences between us, there is a complicated history between Arabs and Jews in this country. But there is a shared future. That shared future exists in every area of life

The future model for the State of Israel that I see before me is a model familiar to anyone who enters the doors of an Israeli hospital. There, a person sheds the narratives and identities they carry. There, first and foremost, human beings meet.

Patients, doctors, nurses, administrative staff, families — everyone is equal. That is the place where we are all human beings, and that is where we will begin. This is also how I see the future of the State of Israel, a future that I envision clearly and distinctly. What guides me is the Zionist, values-based Jewish worldview from which I draw my convictions.

The Declaration of Independence is a compass, not just a text written on a wall.

The Declaration of Independence states:

For me, these are the principles I believe in, and the principles on which I am coming. Can all the parties that call themselves Zionist sign this declaration today? I am far from certain

Can political cooperation be created between people who are so different? I think it can.

I do not intend to change Mansour or Ra’am, and they will not change me, but it is possible to cooperate politically on the basis of trust, recognition of our differences, and a commitment to working together

The current government has brought the State of Israel to intolerable places in every area of life: rampant crime, a lack of personal security for all citizens, certainly for the country’s Arab citizens, whom the government has no interest in at all.

As someone who served in the previous government and worked to combat crime, I know that things can be done differently, with cooperation between all state authorities and local authorities, but the condition for that is for someone to actually care.

Education is at a low point, particularly in Arab society. The same is true of welfare, healthcare, employment, transportation and more

It is impossible to lead a process of repairing the country without connection — including political connection. The lines that have been drawn in political discourse are unacceptable to us. They have been drawn through exclusion, incitement and racism.

The common assertion — that after October 7 it is impossible to establish a political partnership with Arab parties — is absurd and false.

Arab Israelis experienced the war, and in the horrific October 7 attack more than 34 members of the Arab community were killed, and Arab citizens were also kidnapped to Gaza — six members of the Bedouin community in the Negev.

Throughout the war, we all — Arabs and Jews — sat in shelters during missile attacks by Iran and Hezbollah. Residents were evacuated from their homes, and Arab citizens were also killed and wounded.The political dividing lines were drawn by extremists and became an accepted political norm across all parties. I do not accept this premise.

The time for repairing the country is also [a time to repair] internal-social rifts. Twenty-one percent of the citizens are part of that repair.

Arab society, with all its diversity and differences, is an engine of economic, social and cultural growth for the State of Israel. It is not a threat, it is an opportunity for the State of Israel and also a bridge to its neighbors.

We are in an election period, but my intention, in joining Ra’am, goes far beyond any election.

There are residues of the past, there is a bloody history in relations in this country, there are different narratives, and this is all of our past. We can’t change the past because it is an existing fact.

The State of Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and it is our obligation to look toward the future and draw it in color, to leave marks on it. Every person will hold on to their position on the past [as well as] the obligation to create a shared future.

It is not enough to draw and to talk, we need to take action. The role of leadership is to change reality and create a better future.

Two central feelings drive people’s actions. The first is fear, and the second is hope. The political system uses fear to bring audiences together. We want to offer hope. We only need to lift our heads and see that it exists.

We decided that we are doing something even if it is difficult and includes criticism from many directions. Our progress comes from understanding our differences, not from similarity and identity.

But there is a central issue we share: advancing society in Israel, repairing and changing all areas of life: Fighting crime, healthcare, welfare, planning and construction, and all the areas on which we agree

The partnership is based on trust and an understanding of our differences. We are not ignoring them, but we cannot allow the past to dictate the future.

Yes, I explicitly want to break the paradigm of the dividing lines and the lines of discourse. Yes, I also want to break the paradigm of how political partnership is created.

I am not joining Ra’am with a faction, I am personally joining Ra’am. Some will say this is a political weakness, but from my perspective, there is greater power and strength here.

I call on Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Christians and Druze to put their trust in this move and join us.

I thank my friend Mansour Abbas for opening a door to Ra’am for me to be part of its list for the upcoming Knesset.

In the poem “Gan Na’ul” (“A Locked Garden”) by the poet Rachel [Bluwstein], there is a line that repeatedly echoes in my head, in different contexts. Now as well, this line has echoed during the long months in which I deliberated over the move that we are completing today:

“Who are you? Why does an extended hand not meet a sister hand?”

This article was originally translated and published by The Times of Israel

Meanwhile, as news circulates of a new right-wing party that threatens to siphon votes from coalition partners and potentially leave Religious Zionism below the electoral threshold, MK Zvi Sukkot sought to meet his monthly provocation quota. Armed with a sledgehammer, Sukkot was filmed by his social media team attempting to smash a Palestinian monument in the West Bank village of Madama. The spectacle quickly drew international media scrutiny, focusing heavily on the military escort present while the demolition was being carried out.

Outlets across Europe and the Middle East highlighted the incident and its fallout. Germany’s Der Spiegel covered the fierce domestic backlash and opposition accusations of deliberate provocation, while France’s Le Monde detailed how the action was swiftly condemned across political and military ranks. Outlets like Egypt’s Al-Ahram and Pakistan’s The Express Tribune drew sharp attention to the military units guarding the politician during the act. The episode has heightened friction between right-wing politicians and military leadership, which publicly denounced Sukkot’s conduct and maintained that he acted deceitfully during what was scheduled as a routine site visit.

In another unusual turn across the security landscape, the military censor took the proactive step of unblocking a previously spiked story regarding direct communications with Hamas. Channel 12 political reporter Yaron Avraham revealed that in April 2025, the censor barred him from reporting that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar was managing direct hostage negotiations with Hamas leadership abroad, bypassing mediators. Bar confirmed during a cabinet meeting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly authorized these channels, reportedly questioning why he was later sidelined from the negotiating team after establishing the connection.

The sudden green light for publication has generated intense suspicion, coinciding directly with a separate report detailing Netanyahu’s own pre-war indirect contacts with Hamas via associate Shlomi Fogel. The timing suggests a calculated maneuver designed to normalize past dealings with Hamas and reshape the public narrative, raising troubling questions about whether the censor acted independently or under direct political pressure.

Finally, two and a half years after the disappearance of Haymanot Kassau in Safed, the Shin Bet announced it has joined the investigation. The agency’s involvement allows investigators to bypass certain research restrictions imposed on civilian police, working under the hypothesis that whoever was behind the girl’s disappearance carried a device transmitting electronic signals. However, Haymanot’s family is demanding that the intelligence agency take complete control of the case rather than merely supply tools to the police.

Speaking to Kan Radio, Haymanot’s sister Yerus welcomed the intelligence agency’s involvement but sharply criticized state authorities for breaking the news through the media rather than updating the family directly. Highlighting a severe breakdown in communication, Yerus Kassau noted that neither the police or the Lahav 433 major crimes unit are in contact with the family. She further condemned law enforcement’s initial response, contrasting the sluggish handling of Haymanot’s case with other missing children investigations where city entrances were immediately locked down. Pointing to the glaring disparity in how state resources are deployed, she underlined the lingering tragedy of that initial failure: a young girl entered a building and simply vanished.

Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis

"No Civil War with the Enemy at our Gates"

I have a distant cousin who lives in the Jezreel Valley in the north of Israel. In a few weeks, he’ll be 99 years old, so we visit him as often as we can. A couple of years ago, when we went to visit, we brought him a copy…

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5 years ago · 13 likes · Daniel Gordis

Not to be outdone or out-headlined, Netanyahu scrambled to claim his piece of the historical pie. The result was a comical, awkwardly choreographed dance at the Etzel Museum on the shores of Tel Aviv. Desperate to avoid sharing a frame with his own National Security Minister, who was holding a press conference on the premises, Netanyahu opted to film his own separate video statement from the lobby of the very same building. But the absolute peak of this farcical scramble was captured by Channel 12 cameras outside: to facilitate Netanyahu’s ego-driven photo-op, his heavily armed, masked security guards were seen sprinting on the beach, rifles at the ready, weaving wildly through confused, bikini-clad bathers. The Altalena sank 78 years ago, yet its ghost is summoned whenever fearmongers look to widen the divide within the nation.

“They found the Altalena. Now it’s Heimnot’s turn. When there’s a will there’s a way”.

Another chilling déjà vu is making headlines again, as kites find their way from Gaza to the decimated West Negev villages. Over the past few days, the military has identified at least ten kites launched from the Strip. While none have carried explosives so far, they have landed in trees in Nahal Oz and Re’im, and triggered alarms in Nir Yitzhak for “suspicious aerial objects.” Military sources are evaluating these launches as Hamas “testing the waters,” but for the residents of the south, the sight instantly resurrects the trauma of the incendiary balloons that plagued the region for years in the lead-up to the October 7 onslaught.

This creeping escalation on the border extends beyond the skies. Recently, residents of Kibbutz Kissufim were ordered to lock down following a physical breach in the border fence and fears of terrorist infiltration. The mounting anxiety prompted the head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council to voice a bitter realization: “While Hamas recovers, Israel returns to a policy of containment and reaction instead of initiative.”

Yet, the most terrifying aspect of this déjà vu is the evidence that the military establishment is once again silencing the women watching the border. At a recent press conference held by the “October Council,” Sharon Eshel—the mother of IDF lookout Roni Eshel, who was killed on October 7 after repeatedly warning her superiors of Hamas’ preparations—issued a desperate public plea to Gaza Division commanders to stop ignoring warnings. “Do not ignore them,” she demanded, adding that commanders are actively threatening current lookout soldiers for reporting operational failures and anomalies along the border line.

On Thursday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife made a completely “spontaneous” surprise appearance at pop singer Eden Ben Zaken’s concert at Tel Aviv’s Menora Mivtachim Arena. It was, of course, so highly spontaneous that a secured VIP compound, dedicated cameras, and a microphone just happened to be waiting for him, while the singer feigned utter “shock” at the cameo. Some outraged ticket holders are already fighting back, with at least two class-action lawsuits reportedly being constructed against Ben Zaken for hijacking their evening, and fans are being encouraged to file small claims against the singer directly on the Ministry of Justice website for the uncalled for election campaign.

The musical charade is even more absurd considering the Prime Minister’s deep appreciation for Ben Zaken’s catalog is famously limited to exactly one track. Back in 2020, Netanyahu and Ben Zaken recorded a charity duet covering “Yesh Bi Ahava”, originally performed by Arik Einstein. To this day, it remains the single and only title in her entire repertoire that Netanyahu actually recognizes and is quick to quote.

To publicize their lawsuit, one of the plaintiffs posted side-by-side photos of the singer and of slain hostage Eden Yerushalmi, adding the caption: “We won’t forget Eden Yerushalmi, we won’t forgive Eden Ben Zaken.” The slogan is a pointed reference to Netanyahu’s undeniable culpability in the fate of the hostages murdered in Hamas captivity—a direct result of a leader prioritizing his political survival over signing a deal that would have saved their lives.

The administrators of Eden Yerushalmi’s memorial page objected to this cynical use of her name. “Eden Yerushalmi is not a slogan or a tool for political bashing,” they reminded the public, calling it a disgraceful exploitation of her story for political interests. They added that Eden was someone who united and connected hearts, and that is how she will always remain.

Prime Minister candidate Gadi Eisenkot is not eligible for official security provided by the Shin Bet, because he does not currently hold any official state position. This is dangerously at odds with the level of threats he is receiving - from social media troll Mordechai David getting up close and personal with him on the beach to ugly posters depicting him in a Keffiyah, with the caption playing on his party name - “Yashar (Straight) to Palestine - from the river to the sea!”.

Central Elections Committee Chairman Justice Noam Solberg recently justified his denying Eisenkot a security detail “to avoid setting a precedent” among candidates, while Shin Bet Chief David Zini absurdly offered Eisenkot a hotline phone number to call “if something happens.” The physical danger of this policy was on full display last week at a Yashar party event in Kiryat Malachi. Just minutes into an address by Eisenkot’s No. 2, former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen, a local thug erupted in a barrage of vile abuse and threats. Sitting in the front row, Eisenkot was left completely vulnerable while his minimal unarmed private guards rushed to manage the direct attack on Cohen. Cohen himself was interviewed on the subject to News 12, calling Solberg’s conclusion “A puzzling decision. I am personally aware of threats against Eisenkot from both outside and in.”

What makes this negligence truly scandalous is the staggering conflict of interest dictating Eisenkot’s safety. Any professional reassessment of his security status must pass through the Advisory Committee for Personal Security, which is chaired by Col. (Res.) Ronen Cohen. Unbelievably, Ronen Cohen himself is running an aggressive political smear campaign against Eisenkot: Just one month ago, in an interview to Netanyahu-friendly radio Galei Israel, Cohen made the baseless, toxic claim that “October 7 is written all over Eisenkot’s face”—ignoring the fact that Eisenkot ended his tenure as IDF Chief of Staff five years before the massacre.

Just yesterday Netanyahu chose Ben Gurion at yet another one of its busiest days of the year to meet and greet workers of the Israel Airports Authority along with Transportation Minister Miri Regev (who promptly left, along top Transportation Ministry officials, to a “private” seven-day trip to Morocco ).

Yes, this means that today, while the Israel Airports Authority announced that they are currently dealing with a possible workers’ strike, initiated under the direction of the workers’ committee, affecting operational activities and service to the traveling public, all top brass in the transportation ministry is already vacationing in Marrakech. Meanwhile, some 82 flights were requested to retrace their steps. For one hour, the airport was closed to landings and all flights remained suspended.

Reporters say the person responsible for the chaos is Airports Authority Employees’ Committee Chairman Pinchas Idan, a Likud member. Idan told ynet: “Back in June I sent a letter to the IDF warning there was a personnel shortage, and they replied with tall tales. A porter can’t work 13 hours a day in this heat. Do you want people to collapse?”. One social media user quipped “Idan shut down Ben Gurion Airport because Miri didn’t take him along to Morocco”.

After Israel issued on Tuesday a tender for seven residential compounds in the E1 project - containing 1,234 apartments and linking Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim while disrupting Palestinian territorial contiguity between Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah - UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband was quick to condemn the initiative. On Wednesday, Miliband described the move as an “unacceptable and destructive act” that would cut across the heart of Palestine and risk separating the West Bank from East Jerusalem, thereby endangering the viability of a two-state solution.

Miliband emphasized the solution remains the only path to ensuring long-term security and peace for both Palestinians and Israelis, noting that all settlements damage that prospect and constitute a flagrant breach of international law. He announced that the UK will soon set out a comprehensive set of measures. These measures are being constructed to respond to Israeli government policies, protect the viability of a Palestinian state, target sanctions at individuals participating in illegal settlement expansion, and support a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians.

In conjunction with these demands, the Israeli Chargé d’Affaires was summoned to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to hear the UK’s profound objections and demands for an immediate reversal. We remind the reader the reason there is currently no Israeli ambassador to the UK: The man appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to serve there is Tzachi Braverman, his former chief of staff who is currently facing an indictment on charges of fraud and breach of trust.

Germany also weighed in on the E1 tender:“Our message is clear: There must be no further steps toward annexation in the West Bank,” said Sebastian Hille, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spokesman. “No formal ones, but also no political, structural, or other measures whose impact is increasingly and obviously leading toward annexation. They run counter to a two-state solution.”

Three Arab-majority parties have officially announced yesterday (Wednesday) they will run together on a joint slate in the upcoming October 27 Knesset election, which will be the first election since the October 7, 2023, attacks and the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul. The first iteration of an Arab joint list dissolved in 2022.

Former MK Yousef Jabareen, leader of the mixed Arab-Jewish communist party Hadash (replacing veteran MK Ayman Odeh), will head the slate. He will be followed by Ahmad Tibi, leader of the secular Arab nationalist Ta’al party, and Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of the secular Palestinian nationalist party Balad, in the third spot.

In his official announcement, Jabareen stated that the Joint List was re-established out of a deep sense of responsibility to their public and to democratic Jewish forces. He described the alliance as a political force that will fight against fascism and strive for true equality and a just peace. Jabareen emphasized that the primary mission in the coming weeks will be to maximize voter turnout within their community to prevent the Netanyahu-Ben Gvir-Smotrich government from returning to power, while also extending a hand for an equal and democratic Jewish-Arab partnership.

Before committing to the three-way alliance, Ta’al had explored a potential union with the fledgling Jewish-Arab party A Place for Us All. Independent polling conducted by both parties indicated that in the most optimistic scenario, such an alliance would secure about 3.7% of the vote, putting them at severe risk of failing to pass the electoral threshold. Consequently, Ta’al opted to return to the idea of the Joint List.

The United Arab List (Ra’am/UAL) will not be part of the joint slate. Despite a call from the three parties in late May to form a unified four-party front, disagreements arose over how the alliance would operate after the election. However, following Wednesday’s announcement, UAL faction chair MK Walid Taha welcomed the re-establishment of the Joint List and called for the signing of a surplus vote agreement between the two political entities.

A deeply flawed status quo is reaching an end, as Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara forces Haredi education networks to choose between receiving state budgets and obeying core curriculum laws. Historically, Haredi schools received almost full state funding while evading obligations to teach subjects like math, English, and science.

Yesterday, through the state’s response to a High Court of Justice petition targeting Shas’s Bnei Yosef and United Torah Judaism’s Independent Education, the Attorney General issued sweeping directives that are already being carried out to overhaul the supervision and budgeting of these networks. This comprehensive plan ends all previous leniencies that allowed schools to project a false appearance of compliance.

Under the new rules, a unified core curriculum for all educational streams must be published by the next school year; otherwise, Haredi schools will automatically be bound by the rigorous State-Religious school system. For the upcoming year, these schools must teach at least 75% of the core curriculum to receive a proportionally slashed 75% budget, and any school failing to meet full requirements in subsequent years will be completely ousted from the Haredi networks. Furthermore, the directives mandate immediate participation in national exams and require school principals to bypass network leadership by reporting directly to the Ministry of Education.

Down in the engine room, things are indeed absurd: loose cannon Tali Gotliv is screaming about fraudulent, Gotliv-free ballots; Transportation Minister Miri Regev—whose campaign posters were censored with “modesty” stickers in ultra-Orthodox Bnei Brak—accused the El Al workers’ union of actively sabotaging her for trying to bring Wizz Air to Israel; and Haredi wheeler-dealers, actually holding official roles in rival parties, are brazenly handing out pre-filled voting slates to Likudniks arriving at the ballot.

The aftermath of the brutal settler siege in the West Bank village of Qusra we reported of last week (see above) has found its way to the Vatican. After extremist settlers surrounded Palestinian homes—trapping families and children inside while IDF soldiers effectively acted as their wardens—residents of the neighboring Christian village of Taybeh successfully begged Pope Leo XIV for help. Yesterday (Sunday), the pontiff issued an urgent appeal to end the violence and advance a two-state solution. It’s a vision backed by 150 UN member states, but completely dead on arrival for Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who openly brags that his massive settlement push is designed to bury the concept of a Palestinian state once and for all, while settler violence continues with near-total state impunity.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has hand-delivered the International Criminal Court a fresh platter of evidence. Appearing on a new podcast hosted by former Hamas hostage Rom Breslavski, Ben Gvir laid out his vision for Gaza: executing 30 to 40 people every night, claiming the targets “don’t deserve to live” and “are not even people.” He also advocated for the mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to make way for Israeli settlements. The timing was impeccable, dropping right as Donald Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner arrived to push a peace plan. Ben Gvir’s genocidal wish-list immediately made global headlines across Europe, with Euronews helpfully reminding the world that this man controls Israel’s prisons and police force. Even Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister chimed in, demanding the “confessions” be preserved for judgment day.

Israel’s police are aggressively cracking down on the nation’s most pressing threat: Arab weddings. Just days after Ben Gvir boasted about detaining a bride and groom over traffic disruptions, police raided a pre-wedding henna party in the northern city of Umm al-Fahm. Footage shows guests lying face down between overturned chairs after officers tossed stun grenades and demanded everyone hit the deck. The police justified the terrifying raid as a search for celebratory firearms. While no weapons or arrests were reported, eyewitnesses noted the cops did manage to confiscate a hookah and help themselves to the party sweets before leaving.

Is this Sparta? A trio of party leaders—Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman, and Benny Gantz—are heavily promoting a platform to effectively cancel the 12th grade. Arguing that the final year of high school is a waste of time and money, they want students to finish matriculation exams by winter and spend the rest of the year in a “preparatory” boot camp for military service and practical life skills. Unsurprisingly, high schoolers are thrilled with the idea of ditching algebra for military prep. The only thing standing in the way of this militant senior year is the notoriously stubborn high school teachers’ union, whose salaries and jobs would be slashed to make room for the new personnel leading the combat-and-civics workshops.

The crisis began Sunday when Jewish settlers established an illegal outpost in Area B, technically under joint Israeli-Palestinian security control, blocking access to isolated Palestinian homes on the village outskirts. One Palestinian family, the Hassans, was trapped inside for days without water or electricity with two young girls, one of whom was sick with a fever. According to the IDF, the Jewish extremists used a military ambulance to infiltrate the closed military zone. Following days of paralysis and a failed eviction attempt on Wednesday, where forces retreated after settlers blocked roads with rocks, the IDF and Border Police finally dismantled two outposts near Qusra and Jalud overnight, detaining just one Israeli and confiscating equipment.

The prolonged siege drew condemnation even from the settler-friendly U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who explicitly labeled the actions criminal. He tweeted that the acts meant to intimidate and harass the family were disgusting, adding there is no excuse for such thuggish behavior.

The military’s five-day delay in removing a known gang of extremists is not a sign of operational weakness, but of deliberate policy, according to Israeli scholar Tomer Persico. He argued that under current military leadership, the IDF has effectively become an auxiliary force for radical hilltop youth. He described the situation as state-sponsored terrorism operating on four levels: a government that funds and equips the extremists; a military sovereign that deliberately avoids enforcing the law; a mainstream settler population providing tacit support; and the militant youth acting as an independent armed wing.

Persico warned that this is not anarchy, but the selective privatization of violence to carry out an ideological vision. As these militant factions amass arms and power, he cautioned that any future Israeli government attempting to halt them will face entrenched resistance. He noted that if Israel continuously fails to rein in Jewish terrorism, the international community may demand a foreign stabilization force in the West Bank, mirroring recent developments in Gaza.

Palestinian journalist Yinal Jabarin echoed these sentiments, noting that settler violence cannot be separated from the policies enabling settlement expansion. The perpetrator on the ground has systemic power, land, budgets, and protection behind him. Jabarin wrote that from the Palestinian perspective, the result is clear: when a family is afraid to stay in their home and a community loses the ability to exist, there is pressure to leave. Therefore, the concept of ethnic cleansing must be part of the discussion. However, he also placed responsibility on the Israeli opposition, arguing that condemning individual settlers is not a policy and promising security without addressing the occupation is not a real political alternative.

“Government-sponsored terror” by Engelmayer

Meanwhile, the election campaign trail is heating up. Presumably after seeing Naftali Bennett successfully engaging with the public—arriving daily at the IDF induction center to bless new recruits, occasionally helping shear their hair for military regulations, and candidly answering tough questions from Likud loyalists in Ashdod—Prime Minister Netanyahu attempted to press the flesh at Jerusalem’s biggest shopping mall yesterday.

However, the sanitized meet-and-greet featured a pre-vetted crowd given VIP wristbands and was carefully filmed by Netanyahu’s advisor, Topaz Luk. The resulting video garnered 96,000 likes from various bots and loyalists, but also earned a reprimand from the Central Elections Committee for violating campaign regulations by involving children in election propaganda.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Likud MK Tali Gotliv was caught on tape at a parlor meeting threatening party members not to vote for rival factions, despite admitting that her own party is “as mediocre as they are” in the current government.

Cracks are also forming in the government’s most loyal voting bloc. According to recent reports, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef has been privately urging his students to abandon Shas and actively work to topple the right-wing coalition. The rabbi’s grievance stems from the right-wing bloc’s failure to pass the law codifying military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men.

While Shas quickly issued a public denial, vowing to act with determination against a left-wing government aiming to tear Judaism out of the state, party insiders confirm that Yosef is openly campaigning against the faction founded by his own father. The episode reveals that the alliance between the ultra-Orthodox leadership and the current government appears strictly conditional on cementing the legal right to avoid military service, even as the country grapples with the ongoing war.

At Kibbutz Nir Oz this week, former Hamas hostage Sagui Dekel Chen, who was released in February 2025, held a raw, deeply personal concert featuring songs he composed in his head while surviving in the tunnels. Dekel Chen set the tone immediately, clarifying to the crowd of 3,000 that the evening was not a celebration, closure, or a victory, but simply part of the story. The performance, writes Ha’aretz, was a reflection of trauma, including a haunting song about his darkest fear in captivity: returning to an empty home. The concert, part of the prestigious Israel Festival, also included a more lighthearted track titled “Factory of Smiles,” featuring a jovial Spanish-language intro by fellow former hostage and Nir Oz neighbor, Iair Horn.

Finally, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics and TheMarker reveals an accelerating decline in the academic qualifications of new teachers entering Israel’s education system. High school matriculation performance among prospective teachers has fallen relative to their peers since 2020.

The decline accelerated after the Education Ministry eliminated the requirement for prospective teachers to take the psychometric university admissions exam in 2015. Since then, average scores among education students plummeted to an all-time low of 460 out of 800 in 2025—well below standard university admission thresholds—and remained under 470 in 2026. As tens of thousands of lower-scoring teachers enter the workforce, they are tasked with preparing the next generation for the very exams in which they themselves performed below average, highlighting a long-term institutional neglect of public education.

An unfortunate work mishap occurred for the settlements reporter of government-friendly Channel 14, Elia Aviv. Yesterday, police officers reported they uncovered a terrorist cell that had collected weapons in the West Bank. When attempting to arrest the suspect, dozens of other individuals arrived, beat and injured the police officers, and the suspect fled. Aviv quickly posted on Telegram, calling them ‘terrorists’ because he assumed they were Palestinians, thus accidentally providing for once a reliable report about religious extremists committing terror. Five minutes later, he corrected and deleted the post. The “terrorist” was rebranded as a “Jew,” the other attackers disappeared from the narrative, and the incident was downgraded to “under investigation” before being completely scrubbed from the channel.

Former Mossad Official Suggests Firings Intended to Shield Netanyahu

Haggai Gilen, former head of the Mossad’s top Caesarea unit, responded on Channel 12 to incoming Mossad Chief Roman Gofman’s decision to dismiss the head of the intelligence directorate and the head of the Iran division following the attempted coup in Iran. Gilen emphasized that every single Mossad operation of any scope is approved and closely monitored by the Prime Minister down to the smallest detail. Addressing a reportedly failed plan to arm Kurdish forces, which was ultimately blocked when Turkey’s Erdogan contacted Donald Trump, Gilen argued it is illogical to fire department heads over operational failures. He stated that operations take years and are sometimes canceled in the last minute for political reasons. Gilen suggested that Gofman arrived with a directive to fire the two senior officials in order to deflect political responsibility from the Prime Minister.

IDF Lone Soldier Passes Away in New York Following PTSD Battle and MoD Bureaucracy

Will Shakin, 25, a former IDF lone soldier from Great Neck, New York, passed away overnight after a difficult battle with PTSD. Shakin served in the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion after making Aliyah following October 7. After his service, he returned to the US carrying severe trauma from the loss of a platoon friend. According to Haim Meizelsh of the Nevut association, Shakin was not recognized as post-traumatic during his service. The Ministry of Defense reportedly demanded his return to Israel to attend committees for recognition, separating him from his family support system. Meizelsh highlighted that there are 1,200 open cases of IDF casualties in the US managed by only two MoD representatives. The Ministry of Defense also refused the hakin family’s request for a Mount Herzl burial, stating that no official request for recognition was filed and that remote digital submission was an available option.

Prime Minister’s Advisors Suspected of Leaking Classified Intel to Qatar

A report by Bini Ashkenazi in Israel Hayom reveals that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s advisors, Yonatan Urich, Eli Feldstein, and Israel ‘Srulik’ Einhorn, are suspected of passing classified information from closed security discussions regarding Egypt to Qatar. This is a big deal, as it contradicts prior assumptions that the advisors merely marketed Qatari messages to the media. Investigators now suspect the advisors leaked highly classified Israeli intelligence to defame Egypt. Because the advisors did not participate in some of the leaked discussions, questions remain regarding who provided them with the information. Democratic Party Chairman Yair Golan condemned the act as treason, stating the advisors jeopardized strategic relations with Egypt to serve Qatari interests and calling for Netanyahu to be investigated.

• Likud Internal Court (Tribunal) Canceling Primary Rule Changes: The Likud’s internal court, headed by former MK Michael Kleiner, voided a vote passed by 3,500 party convention members. The vote would have allowed sitting ministers and MKs to run in primary slots reserved for new regional candidates. The tribunal ruled that this violated the party constitution, undermined the renewal of party ranks, and granted sitting politicians an unfair advantage backed by public election funding. Completely coincidentally, a day later it was revealed that Kleiner was detained, along with other suspects, by the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit amid a probe into tax fraud, for his alleged involvement with a construction contractor who is suspected of hiding tens of millions of shekels in real estate assets from tax authorities.

• Central Elections Committee Banning Voter Tracking Apps: Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, serving as Chairman of the Central Elections Committee, issued a precedent-setting decision prohibiting party representatives at polling stations from reporting voter turnout via dedicated apps (such as “Elector”, which in the past was used by the Likud to log additional private data, such as individual political leanings, personal phone numbers, and family connections, all of which were left exposed online in a major security breach in 2020). Solberg ruled that tracking which individuals have or have not yet voted during election day violates voter privacy and election secrecy.

• High Court Freezing Coalition Funds: Supreme Court Justice Alex Stein issued a temporary injunction freezing the transfer of coalition funds passed by the Knesset Finance Committee shortly before elections. The court halted the allocation of hundreds of millions of shekels intended for Haredi institutions and settlements due to “procedural defects”—specifically noting that the funds were approved during a Knesset recess after its dissolution, without opposition consent, missing required legal opinions, and lacking justifications for bypassing standard procedures.

  

  Former Mossad Chief David (Dadi) Barnea has graciously allowed the nation a staggering two-month cooling-off period before stepping directly into his new role as Chairman and Global President of US-traded defense holding group Ondas Defense. Two whole months—evidently more than enough time for deep state secrets, strategic intelligence networks, and high-level security clearances to thoroughly chill.

  Barnea joins Ondas as the group carries out an aggressive acquisition spree across Israel’s defense tech sector. Operating on a $1 billion cash infusion provided by a completely undisclosed investor whose identity Ondas refuses to reveal, the company is actively securing control over vital national defense assets. Among its primary targets are Omnisys and mPrest, the firm responsible for the core command-and-control software of the Iron Dome missile defense system.

  While the Ministry of Defense Security Authority (Malmab) conducts an inquiry into the undisclosed foreign backing and sensitive strategic takeovers, Barnea—alongside a parade of former IDF and defense apparatus officials—demonstrates that in the regime, the line between guarding national secrets and commodifying them is merely an express lane to the boardroom.

• We remind the kind reader that exactly one year ago, Calcalist exposed the fact that Maj. Gen. (res.) Yoav (Polly) Mordechai has partnered with another person to form M.B.G.I. Ltd., a company that has been entitled since 2018 to receive brokerage fees amounting to at least hundreds of thousands of dollars from transactions to sell Elbit-made aircraft defense systems to the Qatari royal family. Consequently, he was investigated under caution in the "Qatar-Gate" case, on suspicion of contact with a foreign agent and bribery.

_{Dadi Barnea offering Ondas a “great” CEO candidate - Mahmoud Ahmedinejad}

Recent reports have indicated that Yoav Segalovitz, an MK for the centrist Yesh Atid party, is exploring joining Mansour Abbas’ Ra’am party, a historically Islamist party that has lately taken steps to depart from its religious roots and emphasize a civic identity, perhaps in an attempt to be more palatable to the average Israeli.

If this will indeed take place, this will become an unprecedented move in Israeli politics: while Jewish candidates have previously served in Arab-Jewish factions (like Dov Khenin in the Hadash coalition), Segalovitz would mark the first time a mainstream Zionist politician and former senior police official, joins the core leadership of an Arab party.

Times of Israel published a survey among 500 Jewish and Arab respondents, revealing that 56% of opposition voters will support integrating the Ra’am party into the next coalition, provided that Segalovitz is on the list. Among coalition voters there is a majority of 55% who oppose the move. The data shows that this possible addition to Ra’am may strengthen the party, increasing it to 6 parliamentary seats.

The catalyst for this televised spectacle was Bluth’s refusal to protect a violent settler. Bluth had sought to renew a restraining order against Tal Yinon Dardik, an extremist suspected of stripping a Palestinian victim and zip-tying his genitals. Katz, who recently paid a highly irregular visit to the terror suspect’s jail cell, declared Bluth’s actions to be “contrary to my policy”.

However, the live-air stunt backfired. The military swiftly rejected the dismissal, noting the defense minister lacks the authority to unilaterally fire senior commanders. To shield the ranks from further political contamination, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has reportedly frozen all senior military appointments until after the October 2026 elections.

Faced with a humiliating fiasco and accused by former ally Gilad Erdan of representing a “corrupted right-wing,” Katz frantically attempted to walk back his televised bombshell. He claimed the replacement had been planned months in advance—an assertion directly contradicted by the IDF.

Meanwhile, Katz’ unintentionally hilarious Primaries campaign ad reveals his social team, which prior to October 7 dabbled in dank memes, is at it again.

A new study from Tel Aviv University reveals a staggering 50 percent surge in Israelis leaving the country, underscoring the severe economic and demographic toll of the government’s judicial overhaul and the ongoing multi-front war.

According to the research—led by Prof. Itai Ater, Prof. Nitai Bergman, and Doron Zamir—approximately 270,000 Israelis left the country for at least three consecutive months between 2023 and 2025.

Mako reports, “the standard measure for defining an immigrant is based on staying abroad for more than 270 days in the first year after departure, so the full data for 2025 will only be published in early 2027. Instead of waiting, the researchers examined how many Israelis left the country for at least three consecutive months - a shortened measure that can be measured right away”. This may make sense, but drawing conclusions from it requires a cautious approach -following the “Twelve Day War”, many left the country for an extended vacation, rather than live under the constant “Red Alerts”. If they will ultimately qualify as immigrants remains to be seen.

That said, this measure represents an increase of 86,000 people compared to the same timeframe a decade earlier. While the historical pre-crisis average hovered around 60,000 departures annually, 2024 saw a record 91,500 departures, with 2025 remaining exceptionally high at 90,900.

Most alarming for the nation’s future is the profile of those departing. The data highlights a sharp exodus of high-income earners and highly skilled professionals. Between 2023 and 2024 alone, Israel suffered a net loss of over 500 doctors and roughly 2,360 engineers.

The researchers warn that this sustained brain drain poses a critical threat to Israel’s stability. Because the Israeli economy relies so heavily on the concentrated human capital of its high-tech, medical, and academic sectors, the continued flight of its most skilled citizens could trigger devastating long-term consequences.

In a classic display of an “Isra-bluff,” the Ministry of Education continues to funnel public funds into Haredi schools while willfully ignoring their absolute refusal to teach a core curriculum. Despite official claims that non-compliant institutions will face financial penalties, reality reflects otherwise: News 13 reveals that since January 2023, not a single budget cut has been levied against exempt schools (Ptor) or seminaries for dodging core subjects. Astoundingly, over 60 percent of these exempt institutions gladly pocket state funding explicitly earmarked for core studies without actually teaching them.

When pressed to release inspector reports, ministry officials refused, absurdly arguing that transparency might create a “chilling effect” on the schools’ autonomy and pose a risk to the trust system between the ministry and Haredi principals. Meanwhile, educational standards are being systematically gutted to appease Haredi sensibilities: A recent science exam saw 30 percent of its content erased—including physics for younger grades, because it is not in their curriculum, as well as genetics and evolution— because they contradict the Haredi worldview. In one tragicomic scene, an English teacher in a Shas network school was caught on tape admitting to an English-speaking TV researcher that he cannot speak English.

While on the subject of the haplessness of the Ministry of Education, the Finance Ministry is drafting a massive reform that effectively dismantles the Ministry of Education in its current form, shifting the management of schools and kindergartens to local authorities. The plan involves transferring some 200,000 teachers from state to municipal employment, a move explicitly designed to weaken the powerful Teachers’ Union and strip the central ministry down to a smaller body focused solely on strategy, budgeting, and regulation.

The backdrop to this drastic step is the spectacular collapse of the Education Ministry’s functionality. Finance officials and education experts point to the ministry’s complete paralysis during the recent rounds of conflict with Iran in March 2026. Despite a staggering budget of 97 billion shekels—a 100 percent increase over the last decade—the central bureaucracy failed to implement any lessons from the pandemic or the October 7 war, leaving schools scrambling.

Instead of addressing the structural rot, current Education Minister Yoav Kisch has opted for cover-ups. Kisch recently ordered the suppression of disastrous national test scores showing that 97 percent of ninth graders failed to meet basic science curriculum standards, and only 20 percent met expectations in English.

While the decentralization plan is being framed as a necessary rescue mission, critics warn of severe consequences. Transferring management to local municipalities threatens to drastically widen the already glaring gaps between wealthy and underfunded local councils, essentially paving the way for the covert privatization of Israeli education under the guise of bureaucratic efficiency.

Haaretz reports, “Israel’s President Isaac Herzog accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of “antisemitic rhetoric” and of “risking his own citizens” in an interview aired over the weekend, the latest in a wave of Israeli leaders harshly condemning the democratic socialist mayor.

Speaking to Fox News, Herzog said Mamdani “does not respect my nation’s right for self-determination, my nation’s right, the Jewish people’s inherent right to have a nation of their own. And he’s basically spreading blasphemy, hate, antisemitic rhetoric. He should understand that he’s risking his own citizens. He’s risking their safety, well-being and life.”

The president added: “I think New York will continue way after Mamdani. And I hope he won’t create irreversible damage,” he said. “I hope that the citizens of New York will be as safe as was promised to them.”

Ramireztoons (Michael Ramirez Newsletter)

Michael Ramirez: Mamdani Lies 07-27-26

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Challenging Haredi protesters who disrupt traffic, Pindrus invoked Jewish law, asking, “You studied Bava Kamma, how do you block a route?” This references a Talmudic tractate dealing with civil damages, which strictly prohibits placing obstacles in the public domain.

The rhetoric has drawn fierce condemnation. Not the least because his rhetoric evolved from shooting Lazimi “in the legs” to shooting her, full stop. In response, MK Lazimi submitted an urgent letter to the Attorney General, requesting the removal of Pindrus’s parliamentary immunity and the initiation of a police investigation for direct incitement to murder. Critics also blasted the remarks, arguing that Haredi protests are intentionally harmful and dangerous to the public, drawing a sharp contrast between them and the citizen-led demonstrations for democracy and hostage releases.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court rejected a defamation lawsuit filed by MK Simcha Rothman against Channel 12 News, journalist Guy Peleg, and other defendants on Wednesday. Rothman sued over a November 2023 report alleging he stated, “The blood of the brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, who were murdered in Huwara, is redder than the blood of those murdered on October 7.” Effectively, this means the court believes Rothman indeed said so, implying victims of the West Bank are more worthy than those of the October 7 massacre, and lied to the court about it. We remind the reader that Rothman chairs the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.

Judge Oren Silverman ruled in favor of the defendants, determining that the broadcast was protected by the “truth in publication” defense. The judge found the testimonies supporting the report highly credible and noted that Rothman’s evasive testimony and blanket denials during the proceedings only strengthened the defense’s case regarding the accuracy of the quote.

The controversial remarks were reportedly made during a preparatory session of his Committee. The meeting focused on requests by the Shin Bet and the Justice Ministry to amend counter-terrorism laws to penalize the possession and consumption of ISIS content, not just its distribution. Expressing severe distrust in the Shin Bet and anger over a perceived historical failure to combat incitement against settlers, Rothman argued that it should not have taken so much blood spilled to prompt a change in policy.

The Likud party has been quietly offloading real estate over the past five years to cover mounting debts, according to a new investigation by Calcalist, with some assets reportedly sold to party insiders at significantly reduced prices.

The investigation reveals that the Likud has sold 8 of its 37 properties since 2021 as part of a “recovery plan.” These properties were owned through “Keren Tel Hai,” a private holding company established by the Revisionist movement. The sales are ostensibly aimed at paying off the party’s debts, which include approximately 16 million shekels owed to the Knesset.

However, Calcalist found that four of these transactions involved buyers with close ties to the Likud, including central committee members and associates of the party’s leadership. In one notable case from January 2026, the Likud branch in Bnei Brak was sold for nearly 1.7 million shekels to a group of investors that included Zvi Fishbach, a prominent local Likud figure, and attorney Dubi Shertzer, who previously served as a defense witness in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s trial. A real estate appraiser consulted by Calcalist estimated that this sale price represents a discount of hundreds of thousands of shekels below market value for the prime commercial location.

While Likud officials and the investors maintain that the properties were sold to the highest bidder through public advertisements, Calcalist reported being unable to find records of these ads online and stated that the party has yet to provide evidence of print publication. The sales are approved by the party’s director general.

The coalition’s panic from the impending elections is palpable. The latest example has to do with the chairman of the Jewish National Fund who unabashedly supports Gadi Eisenkot.

Following his endorsement, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, MK Almog Cohen, sent an urgent letter to the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg. Cohen demanded the immediate unpaid suspension of JNF-KKL Chairman Eyal Ostrinsky until election day, accusing him of spreading political propaganda on official accounts.

Ostrinsky swiftly rejected the accusations in a Facebook post, firmly standing by his support for Eisenkot’s prime ministerial bid. He revealed that the Likud party had demanded he remove his endorsement under the “ridiculous claim” that he is a civil servant barred from expressing political views. Ostrinsky clarified that his statements were published solely on his personal, unfunded Facebook page, which he has run since 2008, unlike previous chairmen who utilized publicly funded accounts.

Dismissing the demand as absurd, Ostrinsky suggested Likud redirect its complaints to its own state-funded officials, such as ministers and mayors. He further emphasized that the JNF chairmanship is not an administrative civil service position, but a political role derived from World Zionist Congress elections and coalition agreements. “I am a politician and I always declare this,” he concluded. “It did not change yesterday and will not change today.”

The National Public Transportation Authority has announced its annual summer service adjustments to accommodate yeshiva students and families on vacation, but the changes are drawing scrutiny over the Ministry of Transportation’s priorities.

The seasonal plan includes a significant reinforcement of bus lines to Haredi population centers and popular vacation destinations, such as Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Tiberias, Safed, Meron, the Sea of Galilee, the Superland amusement park, and the segregated beaches in Ashkelon.

However, this reinforcement is not being carried out by adding new buses or drivers to the existing fleet. Instead, the ministry is diverting resources from other routes. According to published documents, hundreds of trips on intercity and commuter lines nationwide have been canceled or reduced. The Authority justifies these cuts—which impact commuter routes from Rosh Ha-Ayin, Kafr Qasem, and Kiryat Ono to Tel Aviv—by citing a seasonal decrease in summer commuter demand.

Amid an ongoing nationwide shortage of drivers, chronic delays, and inadequate frequency on many year-round routes, the decision to cannibalize regular services for seasonal surges means longer wait times and fewer transit alternatives for everyday passengers in the event of a canceled trip.

As Netanyahu makes his way back from his superfluous visit to Washington, seemingly to attend Senator Graham’s funeral (and allegedly to allow Sara to bring 10 pieces of baggage along), his official account published on social media a video of his meeting with Senator John Fetterman at the Blair House, showing the senator scroll his phone disinterestedly while Netanyahu speaks. Add this to the fact that this was the first time an Israeli Prime Minister stepped down at Joint Base Andrews with no red carpet to welcome them, and you may just reach a conclusion that someone’s welcome seems to be wearing out.

MK Mansour Abbas announced that the party he is heading, Ra’am, is officially separating its political decision-making and candidate selection from the Islamic Movement and the Shura Council. Effective at their August 22 general conference, Ra’am will operate as a fully independent political body. While Abbas stressed that the party will maintain ties to its religious-Muslim voter base and avoid unnecessary friction with the movement, the organizational divorce allows Ra’am to act independently on all policy fronts. Meanwhile, negotiations among fellow Arab parties Hadash, Balad, and Ta’al to form a joint electoral list continue without any agreements reached.

Israel’s standing among American voters is in freefall. CNN data analyst Harry Enten highlighted a mammoth, generational shift in net favorability, noting that Israel is increasingly viewed negatively across the US. Recent data from Ipsos, Pew Research Center, and Marquette University Law School confirm this steep decline. Voters from both sides of the political aisle are souring on Israel, marking a catastrophic collapse in public support.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed today (Monday) for Washington under a shroud of extreme secrecy. The Wing of Zion took off covertly from the Nevatim Air Base in the Negev at 1:00 PM on Monday, bypassing Ben Gurion Airport and normal protocols. Staff were sworn to silence, and the diplomatic media pool was once again banned from the flight. Netanyahu is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump to discuss Iran. While the media previously condemned such secretive maneuvers as unjustified, the Israeli public has become desensitized enough to simply shrug at this latest breach of transparency.

A burned overhead power cable disrupted all southbound train traffic from Tel Aviv early Sunday, sparking a fire near an empty train in Lod. Journalist Yifat Reuven reports that systemic neglect is to blame, with Israel Railways failing to conduct thorough maintenance checks on electrification infrastructure. This negligence is a direct symptom of a severe management crisis at the state’s largest transport company. With no permanent CEO expected until at least spring 2027 and no chairman in place, operations are severely impaired. Potential candidates for the top job are reportedly deterred by ministerial interference and the fear of criminal liability in the event of major malfunctions.

After 993 days, bereaved father Yaacov Godo has dismantled the longest-running protest tent in Jerusalem. Godo established the encampment opposite the Knesset one month after the October 7 massacre to demand accountability for the death of his son, Tom. The tent was continuously manned through extreme weather, wars, and relentless abuse from passersby. After nearly a year and a half of protest, Godo learned that his son was killed not by Hamas terrorists, but by IDF soldiers who mistakenly fired into his protected room. Over the weekend, hundreds of activists and several opposition MKs gathered for a bittersweet farewell, marking the end of a tragic three-year struggle for truth. “We did not topple the government”, one activist was quoted by Haaretz as saying, “but we were the conscience of the protest movement”.

Speaking of Tisha B’Av, rescued hostage Bar Kuperstein shared a heartbreaking memory from his time in captivity. He told Kan radio that last year, he and other hostages decided to fast for Tisha B’Av while held in Gaza. They saved their meager food rations. Not knowing the exact date, they relied on seasonal clues and passing holidays to guess when the fast fell. The decision to abstain from food under such horrific conditions required immense effort, he said, but they did it hoping the spiritual sacrifice might aid in their release.

In its latest maneuver to evade accountability for the October 7 catastrophe, the government informed the High Court of Justice yesterday that establishing a State Commission of Inquiry is, wait for it, “unfeasible.” The regime’s stated excuse is that the legislative schedule was interrupted by the upcoming elections. Audaciously, the government even instructed the court to exercise restraint and refrain from intervening in a “political dispute.” If only the government would exercise restraint and refrain from intervening in judicial disputes.

Opposition voices across the political spectrum immediately decried the cynical maneuver. Yair Golan vowed a State Commission of Inquiry would be established the day after the elections. Civil rights groups condemned the government’s unprecedented contempt for the judiciary, noting the Prime Minister is doing everything possible to avoid facing his failures.

Simultaneously, the state apparatus continues fiercely guarding crucial military secrets from the victims’ grieving families. Relatives of Alon Shimriz, Yotam Haim, and Samer El-Talalka—three hostages tragically killed by military fire in Gaza in late 2023—have petitioned the High Court just to obtain operational debriefs, communication recordings, and their loved ones’ personal effects.

The profound moral bankruptcy of these endless stalling tactics was summarized by Eyal Eshel, father of fallen field observer Roni Eshel. Marking nearly three years since the disaster, on the eve of Tisha B’Av, Eshel issued a public indictment against a leadership terrified of the truth. He explicitly described a state completely drowning in propaganda, smear campaigns, and fabricated treason narratives designed to distract from the ultimate failure. The true and unforgivable betrayal, Eshel declared, is against the parents who buried their children and the soldiers sent into the fray.

As the election campaigns heat up, President Isaac Herzog delivered an address Tuesday evening warning of severe threats to the democratic process. Herzog stated that the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, and Shin Bet chief David Zini presented him with threats to election integrity coming from both inside and outside the country. Herzog called on law enforcement to stand firmly against these threats and noted a dangerous rise in violence. He pleaded with politicians not to cross red lines and not to turn rivals into enemies, reminding them that an election is not a civil war.

Perhaps showing exactly the kind of internal democratic rot the President fears, The Times of Israel reports a shocking admission regarding the Knesset’s supposedly secret ballots. New Hope MK Sharren Haskel submitted an affidavit to the High Court of Justice on Thursday stating that Knesset members from her party were instructed to video themselves voting for the Likud’s state comptroller candidate, Michael Rabello, during the controversial June election.

Haskel testified that MKs were told to show the video of their vote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted that Rabello, his longtime lawyer and adviser, be the coalition’s candidate. This directly contradicts previous affidavits from Likud officials claiming no such instructions to record votes were ever given.

Meanwhile, Moshe Saada, a Likud MK and former deputy head of the Police Internal Investigations Department, casually dropped a massive security bombshell on live television. During an interview today (Thursday) on the government-friendly Channel 14, Saada blurted out: “We all know we are on the cusp of an attack on Iran, maybe even this weekend.” This reportedly infuriated the Prime Minister, who had explicitly requested Knesset members to keep quiet about Iran. Saada quickly backtracked, issuing a clarification that he actually meant “an attack by Trump and the US”.

While the country focuses on Iran and elections, the de facto annexation of the West Bank is being carried out at lightning speed. Omer Sharvit of Zman Israel reports that the government, driven by Likud and Religious Zionism, is cementing sweeping demographic and administrative changes.

The Knesset Finance Committee is poised to convene during the summer break to approve hundreds of millions of shekels for the Settlement and Heritage ministries. Simultaneously, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is entrenching his authority by turning the head of the Settlement Administration into a political appointment exempt from standard tenders. With control transferred from the military to civilian political bodies, these massive structural overhauls ensure the current territorial reality will persist long after this government’s term ends.

Abroad, the performative politics of local councils continue. The Hackney council in east London, now with a Green Party majority, is reportedly moving to end its 58-year twinship with Haifa, largely limited to hospital exchanges between Homerton Hospital and Rambam Medical Centre, due to the ongoing conflict. The move sparked outrage among the British Jewish community, who pointed out the deep irony of boycotting Israel’s largest mixed Jewish-Arab city, a well-known hub of coexistence.

We’ll end with a small but meaningful story of mutual respect from within Israel. Mahmud, the username an Israeli Muslim active on social media, praised the management of Highway 6 for recently installing a dedicated prayer room for Muslim drivers. Previously, drivers had to pray on the scorching hot asphalt of parking areas or inside their vehicles. The management agreed to their request and installed an air conditioned structure with signs in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. As Mahmud wrote: “This isn’t just a room. It’s a gesture of mutual respect and beautiful humanity. And of genuine empathy. This is exactly what our roads need. Safe travels to us all.”

A depiction of Netanyahu with his back to a burning temple on 70 AD, saying “Forget about a State Commission of Inquiry”.

The legislation allows for gender-segregated tracks in master’s and doctoral programs and enforces segregation in public campus spaces where it already exists. In their resignation letter to President Herzog and Education Minister Yoav Kisch, Professors Marcel Mahlouf, Jihad El-Sana, Liya Laor, and Idit Tshuva described the law as an unprecedented intervention in the council’s independence. Fellow resigning member Moshe Vigdor warned that the law grants state legitimacy to the exclusion of women, gravely threatening the global standing of Israeli academia.

Meanwhile, the newly formed left-wing Democrats party, an alliance of Labor and Meretz, held its internal primaries today (Monday). Utilizing secure digital ballots rather than physical polling stations, the party saw participation from a massive voter base. With 112,376 registered members, the party has reached the highest membership figure for the camp since the peak of the Labor party in the 1990s.

The democratic exercise stood in stark contrast to the proceedings within the ruling Likud party. As the Democrats selected their Knesset slate, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consolidated unprecedented control over his own. Under new rules approved this week, Netanyahu will be allowed to handpick eight spots on the Likud list. Furthermore, the party approved a measure allowing the premier to cancel the Likud primary altogether under the guise of a wartime situation, much to the dismay of his own MKs.

Mo-Naama Lizimi, in a tribute by Shoshke Engelmayer

Rather than reflect on this democratic deficit, Likud MK Nissim Vaturi took to Twitter to smear the opposition, claiming that Hamas had established a special headquarters to cheer on Democrats MKs Na’ama Lazimi and Gilad Kariv. Lazimi fired back, accurately labeling Vaturi a vile man and an inciter sanctioning violence. She reminded the public that the Likud leadership historically bankrolled Hamas, promising that soon the public will remove this poison from the leadership of the state.

In a perfect metaphor for the era, the law simply does not apply if the optics are patriotic enough—until a judge finally steps in. For nearly three years, a massive 12-story-high Israeli flag at the Kfar Shamriyahu junction on Highway 2 dominated the skyline and baffled motorists in its sheer magnitude. Erected by explosives expert Boaz Hayun following October 7, the unauthorized 45-meter structure was the subject of a protracted legal battle.

Despite repeated municipal demolition orders pointing out severe zoning violations, Hayun had previously responded by simply elevating the pole and increasing the banner’s size. Now, Judge Moshe Serogovich has deemed the structure unsafe and ordered its removal. While this specific flagpole is being dismantled, Hayun remains undeterred, promising that similar ambitious flag projects are currently being constructed in other locations across Israel.

On the international front, the Prime Minister’s Office offered a predictable masterclass in delicate diplomacy following New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s threat to arrest Netanyahu should he land in the city.

The PMO’s official statement, issued yesterday, lashed out, labeling the ICC a “kangaroo court” with “no jurisdiction over Israelis or Americans”. The dispatch attacked disgraced former Prosecutor Karim Khan, claiming the “bogus arrest warrants” were rushed to deflect public attention from Khan’s own sexual misconduct allegations. As always, the statement concluded with the obligatory reminders of Netanyahu’s leadership and Israel’s status as the only democracy in the Middle East—a tagline that feels more ironic with each passing day.

In the same vein, MK Dan Illouz revealed that about a third of the Likud faction knew the leadership needed to change and attempted to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weeks after the October 7 massacre. The plan, which involved voting against Netanyahu in a no-confidence motion, ultimately collapsed due to ego battles over who would take his place. The initiative was completely taken off the table when Gideon Sa’ar joined the government in September 2024, with Haskel in tow.

In a 53-48 vote, the Knesset today (Thursday) passed Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s sweeping media overhaul, wrapping up the coalition’s legislative blitz just before dissolving ahead of the October 27 elections. The law drastically expands government control over Israel’s broadcast media by gutting regulation, removing minimum journalistic standards, ending obligations to invest in Israeli productions, and easing cross-ownership restrictions.

Netanyahu, who is currently on trial for cases related to media control, participated in the debate and was publicly thanked by Karhi. At the demand of anti-progressive, anti-LGBTQ Noam MK Avi Maoz, the law also restricts cable and satellite providers from broadcasting content involving violence, sexuality, or non-Jewish religious conversion. Critics and legal advisors decried the rushed process and warned of severe damage to press freedom.

In an interview with news correspondent Dana Weiss, former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, who is currently ahead of Netanyahu in the polls, disclosed a bizarre incident involving the Prime Minister. During his tenure, Eisenkot was once urgently summoned to Netanyahu’s office and given a highly unusual demand: to move an entire military sector in the Golan Heights into bunkers. Eisenkot pushed back, citing high risks to soldiers and civilians.

After leaving the office and investigating the sudden hysteria, Eisenkot discovered the true motive: one of Netanyahu’s sons was serving at the time in that specific sector. Eisenkot ultimately refused the order, telling the Prime Minister it was illogical and not a serious directive. In responce to the question how Netanyahu took the refusal, Eisenkot replied: “He didn’t like it. He’s stubborn. But I’m even more stubborn”.

Independent outlet Seventh Eye reported of a quiet rebellion among Israeli newspaper and news site editors. While reporting on Sara Netanyahu’s demand for lifelong security for herself and her children (which was approved. For the time being), all major outlets chose to use authentic, unedited photos of the Prime Minister’s wife.

Thus, they actively rejected the heavily retouched and airbrushed studio photos distributed against protocol by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Government Press Office. The meaning of this is that the official habit of faking and manipulating photos has finally pushed the Israeli press to rely exclusively on independent news and photography agencies for their documentation.

The Ombudsman of the Israeli Judiciary, retired Judge Asher Kola, ruled that Chief Rabbi David Yosef violated ethics rules by calling Supreme Court justices “insolent” and labeling the court an “enemy of Judaism.” Kola stated these remarks exceeded legitimate criticism and were unbecoming of a senior judicial officer.

However, Kola dismissed a separate complaint regarding Yosef’s attacks on a High Court ruling that required the Rabbinate to allow women to take rabbinical ordination exams, deciding that such statements fall squarely within the core of his role as Chief Rabbi.

To top it all off, a new Deutsche Bank report examining living costs in 69 global cities highlighted Tel Aviv’s continued dominance in being painfully expensive. While other cities become more affordable (Konnichiwa Tokyo!), Tel Aviv ranks first globally for the price of a McDonald’s meal, second for gasoline, electricity, water, and cars, third for the cost of a “cheap date,” and fourth for a restaurant dinner for two.

Israeli journalist Liel Kyzer reports that during this blitz, the Knesset Finance Committee canceled today (Monday) a discussion on tax benefits for hundreds of approved non-profits. This cancellation occurred after Haredi parties threatened to vote against the measure, acting in direct retaliation for the halted benefits for yeshiva students who are exempt from the military draft.

The affected organizations include moshavim that were severely damaged on October 7, 2023, as well as groups aiding IDF wounded. These crucial organizations are now held hostage in the political standoff over ultra-Orthodox service exemptions. Kyzer condemns the move as an act of Sodom and compares it to the Judgment of Solomon, pointing out that the Haredi parties are actively choosing the role of the false mother who would rather destroy the child than reach a compromise.

Also today, a discussion is being carried out in the Finance Committee seeking to loot another 313 million shekels for various bizarre budget additions. The government’s requests include funding for armoring ministers’ vehicles, the Wing of Zion aircraft (as if we are being invited anywhere), the Prime Minister’s residence, the Western Wall tunnels, and the Western Wall Heritage Center.

However, the most glaring item belongs to the dissolved Strategic Affairs Ministry. Minister Ron Dermer left his position last year, yet despite this, the government is asking the Knesset to approve ILS 8,150,000 for a security budget for the resigned minister of a dismantled ministry.

Three months ago, the Knesset health committee easily passed a bill that resulted in an annual increase of about ILS 40 million shekels for the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. According to an expose by News 12 reporter Yossi Mizrahi, once the bill passed, the entire Hadassah management made a pilgrimage to Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri to thank him. Deri, apparently, had ensured that Shas MK Yoni Mashriqi, who was temporarily replaced due to his party’s withdrawal from the coalition, was reinstated as the chair of the Health committee to settle the matter.

The expose draws a direct line between the improvement in the medical center’s financial state and its political alignment. This alignment became further evident with the hiring of Ofer Golan and Sani Sanilevich, both former advisors to the Prime Minister, to oversee fundraising. Furthermore, Yifat Ben Hai Segev, a witness in Case 4000 who altered her testimony in court to favor the Prime Minister, was appointed as the hospital’s Vice President of Marketing without a tender, just a month after her testimony.

The structural changes being carried out at the hospital also include the appointment of Likud activist Ariel Bar-On as the head of the CEO’s staff, another position granted without a tender. Testimonies indicate that his office functions as a hub for medical favoritism, shortening wait times for MRIs, surgeries, and complex treatments for political associates while standard patients wait for months. Bar-On’s presence in the Knesset committee’s discussions further solidifies this political networking, which also extends to the medical staff.

Prof. Alon Pikarsky, the head of Haddassah’s surgical department as well as the Prime Minister’s personal surgeon, has seen his professional standing upgraded with appointments to the medication basket committee and the board of directors at Rafael, while also becoming a prominent interviewee on Channel 14. Controversially, in the past Pikarsky has written medical reports minimizing problems with Netanyahu’s health, attacked protesting doctors during the judicial overhaul, and last August issued an unverified medical report on official Haddassah stationary claiming the Sde Teiman Palestinian inmate’s severe anal wounds were self inflicted, despite not checking the inmate himself nor citing evidence.

Haaretz journalist Josh Breiner revealed that Shin Bet Chief David Zini met this week with Yaakov Bardugo, a “journalist” in title only who is a close associate of the Prime Minister, in his office. The meeting focused on the demand from Bardugo and government ministers to advance an investigation into Channel 12 and its foreknowledge on the attack on Iran. This report came after Bardugo openly boasted on air about how he is advancing the investigation. So what if Channel 14, Bardugo’s employer, had no qualms about leaking information that was even more dangerous and classified, before Channel 12 did?

It’s hard to believe this is the same Bardugo who, in 1999 publically presented himself as a victim of Netanyahu’s malicious political scheming, even taking a polygraph test to prove Netanyahu was framing him in a long-forgotten caper. Today, the picture has completely flipped. Bardugo acts as an active lobbyist with highly irregular, direct access to the highest security echelons with the power to use it as a tool for settling scores and advancing private interests.

Haaretz cartoonist Amos Biderman’s image depicts Bardugo removing the hood from a bound Zini, as the caption reads “Meanwhile, in the Shin Bet basements”

According to Idan Kweller on Walla, officials in Israel are “hoping” that Iran makes a mistake and attacks Israel in response to the recent regional escalation. They believe this will trigger a relentless Israeli response, though the question remains as to what the actual consequences will be and how this differs from Operation Lion’s Roar, apart from influencing the upcoming elections.

Meanwhile, a New York Times report revealed that former Mossad chief David Barnea met with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Hungary two years ago in an attempt to recruit him as an intelligence asset. According to the report, Israel even formulated a plan to place the former Iranian president at the head of Iran after the potential toppling of the current regime.

Minister Miki Zohar abruptly ended an interview today (Monday) withveteran radio journalist Esti Perez Ben-Ami on Kan News, following a heated exchange over how to define the events of October 7.

Initially defending the coalition’s legislation blitz before the Knesset recess as acceptable practice, Zohar claimed the government is stable and will complete its term. However, when Perez Ben-Ami pressed him to define October 7 as the most difficult event in the history of the state, Zohar refused, stating it was “one of the most difficult” but insisting on comparing it to the Yom Kippur and Six-Day wars.

When the interviewer insisted, Zohar became irritated, accused her of dealing with nonsense, and, after refusing to continue the discussion on legislative issues, hung up.

A combat soldier from the Givati Brigade, who was diagnosed with post-trauma following a battle in Rafah where four of his friends were killed, has been detained in military prison for nine days after voluntarily coming forward to settle his military status. His family claims he has yet to receive any mental health treatment.

In June 2024, the soldier participated in operational activity in Rafah. His force entered a booby-trapped building, resulting in the deaths of four soldiers and injuries to 11 others. Commanders testified that he functioned in an exemplary manner, saving lives and assisting in the evacuation of his comrades’ bodies.

Following the battle, his mental state rapidly deteriorated. His family states his requests to see a mental health officer during combat were ignored. Struggling to return to service, he suffered from nightmares, flashbacks, the phantom smell of bodies, and severe anxiety. Medical documents determined he could not carry a weapon and conditioned his return on a military psychiatrist’s evaluation.

After a prolonged absence, the soldier arrived at a military prison in late June 2026 to resolve his status. He was indicted for his days of absence, with the military prosecution demanding his detention until the end of proceedings. Despite military court judges noting the exceptional nature of the case and ordering an expedited medical review, he has not seen a psychiatrist after nine days in custody.

The IDF Spokesperson responded that the soldier was indicted for being absent without leave for 632 days, that the medical review is not yet complete, and that the IDF values providing appropriate medical care, citing privacy laws for the lack of further detail.

In leaked recordings, Netanyahu chief of staff is heard dismissing investigators’ requests to coordinate testimony by saying "What are you talking about, sweetheart? Come. I'll arrange for you to get in. Come and see for yourself. Look at his schedule and you'll understand. You people don't understand the reality you live in."

Shin Bet chief David Zini said the quiet part out loud after being caught on tapes leaked to i24 news that he accepted the job in order to be “loyal to the elected leadership” while insisting he is “not a puppet.” President Isaac Herzog reminded him that Israel’s security agencies serve the state, not any political camp. Zini later reassured Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg in a joint meeting with Herzog initiated by Zini (damage control?) that, during elections, the Shin Bet answers solely to the Central Elections Committee.

Meanwhile, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel protested the Shin Bet’s expanding role in policing crime in Arab communities. In a letter sent to the Attorney General, ACRI claims that dealing with civil crime is not included in the service’s designation and functions according to the Shin Bet Law, and that the agency has extraordinary powers designed to deal with terrorist threats – not criminal offenses. “Heads of the Shin Bet for generations – with the exception of the current Shin Bet chief – have traditionally opposed its integration into the fight against crime”. In its appeal, the ACRI warns that the leakage of Shin Bet practices into the fight against crime in Arab society will harm not only the rights of Arab suspects, but also the rights of the entire Arab public,

After last week’s Knesset approval of the Basic Law on Torah Study on first reading, (which would give Torah students the same rights as those serving in the military), today (Thursday) combat veterans suffering from PTSD interrupted the Knesset’s deliberations, demanding disability legislation before constitutional protection for Torah study, claiming “you took us all for a ride”. Leader of United Torah Judaism Yitzhak Goldknopf, who was the subject of their ire, replied “I hear you and I feel a pang of sorrow. Bring me a law and I will carry it out. I will fight for it to the last drop of my blood. I have to give up a lot of things for you.” Opposition MK Merav Ben Ari reminded Goldknopf it’s easy to promise things once the Knesset summer session is over, wondering what he did for the past two years. Her copartisan MK Naor Shiri addressed the protesters, noting that on November 10, 2025, MK Ron Katz, also from the Yesh Atid party, proposed legislation to establish an authority for treating combat shock victims, yet the coalition rejected it.

Haaretz cartoon of Goldknopf by Amos Biderman

Separately, ultra-Orthodox protesters demonstrated yesterday (Wednesday) outside Military Prison 10 against the detention of a draft evader. A ring of young boys sat in a circle in the demonstration site, while older Haredi men tied their hands together in a metal chain bindings in protest. What a glorious night out for kids during summer vacation!

One day after Democrat hopeful Rahm Emmanuel said, in a speech given at Tel Aviv University, that "Israel will be alone if its leaders choose to attempt to annex the West Bank and pursue the fantasy of a Greater Israel," and that America "will not and cannot be complicit or complacent in that endeavor" - the Israeli government approved an ILS 27 million plan to subsidize hotel development in West Bank settlements, aiming to transform the area into an overnight tourist destination.

Yediot columnist Chen Artzi Srur revealed that Israel’s Council for Higher Education commissioned a comprehensive study on gender-segregated therapeutic master’s programs, only to shelve its findings. According to the report, future therapists are better trained in mixed-gender classrooms, while many ultra-Orthodox students—the intended beneficiaries of segregated programs—said they were open to studying alongside the opposite sex and recognized its educational value. The study, submitted in late 2024, was reportedly never discussed after repeated postponements by Education Minister Yoav Kisch, who also chairs the Council for Higher Education. Critics argue that ideological priorities are overriding professional evidence in shaping academic policy.

In response, President Isaac Herzog warned that defying the courts strikes at the very heart of national unity, while Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara denounced it as a blatant attempt to intimidate anyone trying to uphold the law. In a post-October 7 reality, this top-down rejection of legal boundaries has sent a clear message that the old rules no longer apply.

This breakdown of official accountability is felt directly on the streets, where a frightening sense of lawlessness has crept into ordinary daily life. In Jerusalem and Ramat Gan, cafes were vandalized for having the temerity to be open on Shabbat. In Nesher, a young pregnant woman was waiting for a bus when an elderly man, who according to her description was wearing a Kippah, began spitting and screaming slurs at her, furious simply because she was wearing a tank top in July. When the bus arrived, the driver refused to wait for the police, telling her he didn’t care and needed to keep driving. As the attacker boarded, he violently slammed his elbow into Tal’s stomach. The expectant mother was rushed to the hospital, where she was given the all-clear.

The collapse of everyday authority also carries a heavy financial toll, turning systemic lawlessness into a literal tax on survival. A new research published yesterday by the “HaShomer HaChadash" organization and the Rifman Institute of the Negev (comprising Jews and Bedouins) found that criminal protection rackets and extortion schemes have expanded so rapidly that they now drain roughly 23 billion dollars a year from the public. For the average Israeli family, this means paying an invisible “quiet crime tax” of about ILS 8,000 annually. It hits people directly in their pockets through a staggering 56% jump in car insurance rates over just two years. Extortion demands now eat up 5% of building budgets, pushing apartment prices out of reach, while nearly 90% of farmers face constant threats, driving up the cost of the basic food families put on their tables.

Even moments of pure joy are heavy with the trauma that has reshaped every corner of life. In the Sharon area, released hostages Sasha Trufanov and Sapir Cohen were wed yesterday, their wedding a beautiful but bruising reminder of their toil. Their friend Rom Braslavski recalled how the groom and himself were crammed into a single, rat-infested room in Rafah under Islamic Jihad, surviving falling buildings as bombs rained down, before being stuffed into a car trunk as they were being moved. The depth of what they carried was captured perfectly by a resurfaced drawing made by six-year-old Emilia Aloni while they were all trapped together in the darkness of the Gazan tunnels—a little girl’s hopeful sketch imagining Sasha and Sapir as a bride and groom, long before they knew they would ever make it out alive.

With the guardrails completely gone, politicians are now speaking with an unsettling, raw honesty about where their loyalty truly lies. Minister May Golan casually admitted in a TV interview by Channel 14 that there is virtually no ideological difference left between the ruling Likud party to which she belongs and the far-right Otzma Yehudit.

Meanwhile, Minister Orit Struck also spoke her mind in a meeting with a young reserve soldier this week. Deeply exhausted, a 24-year-old reservist confronted Struck, explaining that although they share a settler’s ideology, back-to-back deployments have left him terrified to even try starting his studies or his life. When he asked why the government prioritized draft exemptions over the soldiers doing the fighting, Struck’s response was entirely unsparing: if that’s what matters to you, don’t vote for us, and go form a left-wing government instead.

That pervasive disregard for rules has created a playground for political insiders, even at the expense of public health. A Channel 12 expose found that Asher Milul, a powerful sewage contractor and an influential Likud Central Committee member whose events are regularly crowded with ministers, has been using his political muscle to bypass basic environmental laws. Instead of paying to properly treat toxic waste from the many cities under his contracts, his trucks dumped raw sewage into a massive, hidden pit. Workers mixed it with sand and lit bonfires to mask the stench, creating a dangerous sludge. This toxic mixture was then quietly dumped in residential neighborhoods, right next to municipal buildings, and in farming orchards, showing how easily the powerful can poison the land when there is no one left to hold them accountable. How emblematic that oranges, once the pride of Israeli export, will now grow on Milul’s toxic sludge.

Engelmayer draws - “State Commission of Inquiry!”

In the days leading up to this watershed, those who were in charge chose instead to release inane quotes: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed this week that he “should be thanked for the return of the hostages”. To which the released hostage Miran replied today in a radio interview: “He should stop talking nonsense. He bragged about having torpedoed so many hostage deals. It’s possible that more hostages who could have been with us today were murdered there.”

Meanwhile Netanyahu went on a suckup-fest on Channel 14, where he answered the question, what had changed since the massacre almost 1,000 days ago, with the quip “I lost a little weight”. This rightfully infuriated the families of the victims, who lost their entire universe and are still not receiving formal recognition. Eyal Eshel, father of slain field observer Roni Eshel, shot back: “I, too, have lost weight since October 7th. There’s no appetite when you’re raising a dead daughter”.

Eshel is one of the leaders of the October Committee which organized today (Thursday) a series of commemorative events throughout the country, among them changing the name of the plaza in front of the Tel Aviv Museum from Hostage Square to Remembrance Square.

Eshel’s initiative, of setting disused field observers’ operation room equipment in the square, was thwarted by the IDF. Eshel responded to ynet: “This is yet another deep disappointment from the IDF. We received word that it would not be transferred because the IDF decided that it was a ‘protest,’ even though I signed a form that it was intended to commemorate the observers. This is yet another slap in the face, an arbitrary decision by the IDF spokespeople and the Israeli Personnel Directorate .” The IDF refused to comment on the claims.

The Beit Ariella library, which is adjacent to the square and at the time allotted one of its auditoriums as living quarters of the hostage families, launched today an exhibition titled “1,000 memories”, including items such as the “Prisoner Card” given to hostages Arbel Yehud, Ariel Kunio and Rom Braslavski, the bicycle belonging to slain toddler Ariel Bibas, Eshel’s military beret and the paramedic uniform used by the late Amit Man.

Former hostage Omri Miran told Kan’s Reshet Bet: “On the national level we don’t see any change in how things are being handled. We haven’t learned that lesson. Military officers tell me first and foremost, ‘We’re sorry, and we’re ashamed.’ I don’t see that from our leadership.”

Esther Buchshtav, mother of slain hostage Yagev Buchstav, also said: “1,000 days since the forsaking started. Military pressure did not save the kidnapped, but harmed them. Yet the government continued its course and did not see the people who remained there. We, who were in the massacre and experience the disaster and loss daily, will not forget and will not give up on a state commission of inquiry.”

Ynet op-ed by journalist Merav Batito:

“A thousand days later, we will gather our remaining strength, collect the remnants of national pride, sweep dry leaves from around the monuments, stand courageously before the dead who were slaughtered, and admit with bowed heads: we failed to bring you justice. We did not hold responsible the leaders who abandoned you, we did not call to account the commanders who ignored the warnings that had accumulated on their desks for months, we did not establish a committee to investigate in detail the pathways of blood leading to the most horrific massacre in our history, and we have yet to ensure that this terrible thing will not happen again…

“Hundreds of soldiers have fallen since you were murdered, thousands of new families have joined yours, children were stabbed near their homes, a rabbi in his yeshiva as well as a young woman in her car, and more soldiers and civilians on the northern border who gave their lives and continue to risk their souls. True, we returned to wed and bear children, to the opening and closing of school years, to flying abroad and going out to parties, but your death remains within us. It multiplies itself in city streets, on roads, and on the battlefield like a plague for which no vaccine has been found, like a curse resting at the doorstep of whoever chose to suppress it.

“For 142 whole weeks we have been living here without you since that cursed day, the wounds of your death remaining open. Not a single one of the architects of the disaster has been brought to justice for their part in your death; they continue to manage a campaign that has not yet ended, to fight for laws that will deepen the forgetfulness and amplify the achievements, rewriting the final days of your lives, building new walls of a victorious ideology, and speaking aloud about building Jewish settlements in the most cursed place in the Middle East. Some of them have gained or lost weight, others demand the dismantling of memorial corners in your name, some loudly demand the continuation of their rule, and some curse soldiers – but not a single one of them has come to ask you for forgiveness”.

This sweeping legal defeat for the Comptroller, who was handpicked for the job by Netanyahu, was warmly welcomed by the October Council, which represents survivors and victims’ families. The Council criticized Engelman’s independent probe as an inadequate political substitute for a formal state investigation. Pointing out that the truth has been “postponed and covered up” for nearly a thousand days, the group emphasized that the ruling serves as a vital reminder that the only credible path to accountability is the immediate establishment of an independent, sovereign state commission of inquiry equipped with full subpoena powers to investigate all political and military echelons.

Meanwhile, public anxiety over long-term security remains acute. A Channel 12 poll reveals that 74% of Israelis fear another large-scale attack similar to the October 7 onslaught, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages. Public opinion remains deeply split on the country’s current security situation: 33% believe it has worsened, 33% feel it has improved, and 27% see no change. Additionally, 66% of respondents favor investigating the failures preceding the massacre through a statutory state commission of inquiry—the exact high-level body requested by victims’ families, whose members are selected by the Supreme Court president.

Against this backdrop of intense scrutiny over national leadership, Knesset Education Committee Chairman Zvi Sukkot’s latest attempt at political provocation fell flat during a solo visit to Umm al-Fahm on Sunday. Nominally an official committee tour, Sukkot arrived unaccompanied by fellow members to “demand answers” and protest the absence of Israeli flags at local schools. However, the city’s parents’ committee preemptively shut down the entire education system for the day, reducing the visit to a hollow stunt. Finding only locked gates, Sukkot resorted to pinning a flag to a fencepost for a photo-op while accusing the municipality of concealing criminal activity.

The stunt quickly backfired online. When Sukkot tweeted that the school closure implied the town had “something to hide,” a prominent local resident named Mahmoud delivered a viral rebuttal that completely overshadowed the lawmaker’s post, racking up 250,000 views—ten times Sukkot’s reach. Mahmoud contrasted his family’s academic and civic achievements with Sukkot’s own controversial past, noting that while the lawmaker lacks a matriculation certificate—a telling reflection on the qualifications this government requires for an education committee chairman—Mahmoud’s own children are doctors and university students. Furthermore, he pointed out that while his family has never been detained, Sukkot himself carries a history of arrests on suspicion of terrorism.

On the diplomatic front, the government unanimously approved Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s proposal on Sunday to officially recognize the Armenian genocide. This historic move is expected to deepen already strained ties with Turkey, but critics argue the timing is entirely transactional.

Writer and researcher Yotam Jacobson, who guides tours in Azerbaijan, noted that for decades Israel avoided recognition due to self-interest, including a flawed fear that it would diminish the uniqueness of the Holocaust. He recalled how left-wing politicians like Yair Tzaban and Yossi Sarid were once vilified for trying to recognize the genocide. “The only reason Israel has now recognized the massacre,” Jacobson observed, “is the desire to counter Erdogan, who accuses Israel of massacring a people in Gaza.” He warned that the government may not have fully accounted for how this decision will impact relations with Azerbaijan.

Predictably, the fallout was immediate. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry today issued a statement calling Israel’s decision a “distortion of the truth” regarding the events of 1915, arguing that turning complex historical issues into political decisions without a legal or scientific basis is “unacceptable.”

The exact price tag remains hidden behind a consistent policy of opacity, enforced by a protective inner circle that refuses to practice transparency. Nevertheless, data from comptroller reports and journalistic evidence reveal a grim overview: nearly 100 million shekels spent on planning and renovating official residences, plus tens of millions more on private properties.

At the beginning of his political career, Yoav Kisch, a former air pilot, was a fairly independent figure in the Likud. He was the public’s representative in the Plessner committee that proposed a bill for the ultra Orthodox to share the burden of conscription (look how well THAT dated) and in 2019 he endorsed Gideon Sa’ar in the primaries against Netanyahu. However, after learning how things work in the party, Kisch realized that to advance to higher echelons, one must demonstrate absolute loyalty to the Prime Minister (his pathetic attempt on-camera by waving his hand to catch Netanyahu’s attention during his day in court last year became fodder for many comedians) and the government’s more radical ideologists. Adopting an adversarial rhetoric toward the ‘progressive left’ has become the entry ticket to the core consensus of the contemporary right.

The latest example is having his Ministry of Education reverse a landmark protocol designed to protect LGBTQ+ students. To lead this regressive review, the ministry appointed Hila Mordechai, a psychologist who views gender dysphoria as a temporary symptom of a passing illness. Undercover investigators on behalf of News 13 caught Mordechai on tape advising parents to suppress an adolescent’s identity dysphoria until it goes away. This institutional rollback aligns with a grim 2024 report by the queer youth organization IGY, which highlights a sharp drop in students coming out to their teachers, alongside rising homophobia from educators. While advocacy groups demand that Kisch immediately cancel this contaminated process, the regime’s priorities remain clear.

In yet another flagrant display of institutional hijacking, the Prime Minister’s Office has appointed Lt. Col. (res.) Noam Shapira to head the National Public Diplomacy Directorate—a position left vacant for three years until the government exempted it from a public tender this month. Shapira will manage an 11-million-shekel budget and coordinate intelligence operations across the IDF, Mossad, and Shin Bet for a six-year term.

Shapira’s credentials are uniquely suited for the regime’s domestic needs: he commanded the unit responsible for “72 Virgins Uncensored,” a controversial Telegram channel that ran psychological influence operations targeted directly at Israeli citizens after the October 7 massacre.

To ensure absolute compliance, Shapira will report directly to the newly appointed head of national diplomacy, former Likud Minister Tzipi Hotovely, whose deep political ties to Netanyahu were rubber-stamped by the appointments committee.

In a transparent escalation of political persecution, Israel Police arrested former Hadash MK Mohammad Barakeh over a speech delivered nearly four years ago (!), during the time he acted as chairman of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel. The State Attorney-approved raid on his Shfaram home followed Barakeh’s refusal to be interrogated inside a West Bank settlement for his words, which reportedly included calls for “popular resistance to the occupation,” and “struggle and fighting” against Israel.

Both the High Follow-Up Committee and civil society group Mehazkim claimed the true motive behind this four-year-old accusation is a Netanyahu-Ben Gvir campaign to intimidate Arab citizens, suppress voter turnout, and criminalize Arab-Jewish political partnerships. According to them, this is yet another trial balloon for blatant electoral disruption. Rather than merely warning that Arab voters are “rushing to the polls in huge quantities,” like Netanyahu claimed on Election Day 2015, the authoritarian playbook has evolved to simply locking up their leadership in advance, relying on the quiet complicity of a silent opposition.